Japan's Self Defence Force will withdraw from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan when its troops return home around the end of May. This will close a controversial episode in the prime minister's push to expand the military's overseas role. The primary task of Japan's 350-strong military contingent, based in Juba for the past five years, has been to build infrastructure in the war-torn country. Oil-rich South Sudan has torn by civil war since 2013, when President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer. Read: South Sudan’s crisis is complex, but there’s a way out of war and fragilityAlso read: Parts of war-ravaged South Sudan experiencing famineJapan would continue providing development aid, however, he added.

Source: The Star March 10, 2017 11:26 UTC